Monroe County sex offenders told about stricter law

Thursday

Dec 20, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Monroe County Court Judge Jon Mark informed the county's 22 convicted sex offenders last week about stricter Megan's Law registration and verification requirements those offenders will have to meet starting today.

ANDREW SCOTT

Monroe County Court Judge Jon Mark informed the county's 22 convicted sex offenders last week about stricter Megan's Law registration and verification requirements those offenders will have to meet starting today.

Making Pennsylvania's Megan's Law more compliant with federal guidelines, Act 91 requires sex offenders to be registered for longer periods of time and provide additional registration details to be verified or updated more frequently with authorities.

Seven of the 22 convicted offenders appearing in county court are incarcerated in Monroe County Correctional Facility. Advised by their respective attorneys, four of the 22 offenders (including two incarcerated) plan to challenge the new law as applying to them, and a fifth was considering filing a challenge.

If an offender files his challenge prior to when he must register and the court finds that challenge valid, he will have a court hearing on the challenge. Mark has scheduled any such hearings for Jan. 8.

Defense attorney Thomas Sundmaker said the new law violates both the U.S. and Pennsylvania constitutions with its unjust retroactivity. Sundmaker called the law unfair for Zen and other offenders, who previously were told they didn't have to register or were registered for 10 years and now must do so for 15 or more years.

Charles Margretta, 28, of Mount Bethel, a Tier 2 offender who served time after pleading guilty to statutory sexual assault and marijuana possession. Margretta has completed his parole period on the sex offense sentence, but not on the drug sentence.

It's unjust that Margretta must register under Megan's Law, when he's completed his parole on the sex offense sentence, simply because he's still on parole on the drug sentence, which isn't even a sex crime, said defense attorney George Royle IV.

Brian Dwyer, 22, of East Stroudsburg, initially charged with statutory sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor and corrupting a minor, which was later amended to "corrupting a minor's morals."

Dwyer agreed to plead guilty to corrupting a minor's morals, the least severe offense amounting to a curfew violation, in exchange for the other two charges being dropped. Thus, he was not required to register under Megan's Law since corrupting a minor's morals is currently not a Megan's Law offense.

So, it's unjust to require him to register under this new law, defense attorney James Swetz said.